Helping Not Hurting
Elaine Sloan, a breast cancer survivor and dedicated
animal rights activist, agrees that "more people should take steps to help
animals. All of them. Mice and rats and cows and chickens and other animals
feel pain just like dogs and cats do. It's incongruous to pet some animals
and eat, wear, or experiment on others."
Elaine was not pleased when she found out that proceeds
from the Avon 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk were being used to fund cruel,
irrelevant experiments on animals. She contacted the charity�repeatedly�and
threatened to give back the pledges she had collected if they were not
designated for non-animal purposes.
"I don't want any animals tortured in my name," said
Elaine. "There is already enough suffering in this world; we don't need to
inflict any more� Animals' lives are just as special to them as ours are to
us."
On November 2, 2001, soon after she began contacting
the charity to complain, she received a letter from Mary Quinn, the senior
manager of Avon Products Foundation, Inc., informing her that "[a]s of this
fall, the official policy of the Avon Products Foundation is that no new
Avon Breast Cancer Crusade funds will be used to support breast cancer
research products involving the use of animals."
Elaine was elated. "It took a bit of work, but
apparently I made enough of a nuisance of myself to have an effect."
Go on to
Putting the Reins on the
Rodeo
Return to Activism Unleashed
